Friday, February 21, 2014

'Casino Games' In Feature Films

The most popular 'casino games' featured in movies include blackjack, poker, craps, baccarat, roulette and slots. Even video poker and bingo are casino games that have been highlighted in
various films.

While earlier films tend to include old casino classics the likes of baccarat and variants including 'chemin de fer' and roulette, modern films tend to highlight card games of poker and blackjack.

For the 2006 remake of the 'James Bond' movie "Casino Royale", even superspy '007', switched from the chemin de fer game he played
in the book and the original 1967 film to poker.

In both games Bond lost at first, then came back to win it all.

Poker has also featured in many movies of various genres. Many Old West 'cowboy' movies included games of draw poker in which not only cards were drawn, but pistols were drawn too (in a much more decisive way to sort out the winners from the losers).

In movies set in modern times, games of choice include a variant of poker known as 'Texas Hold’em', which didn't appear in Las Vegas until the middle to late 1960's.

Now, thanks to the internet, Texas Hold'em is everywhere and is the most popular casino game that appears in the movies.

It was this variant that Bond played in the 2006 film of "Casino Royale" though it was virtually unknown in
1967 when the first "Casino Royale" film was being shot.
There are many popular casino games out there. Roulette is also a fave game of film directors including John Huston's 1942 feature "Casablanca" starring Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart.

In that movie the strategy was to bet on 22 which won
twice in succession (though the wheel was rigged).

Roulette also featured in the movie "Indecent Proposal" starring Demi Moore, Robert Redford and Woody Harrelson.

Harrelson’s character lost all his money by betting on red – it came up black – which created a situation in which Redford’s character paid a million dollars to spend a night with Moore’s character. The movie also featured a game of craps, another popular movie game.